Hedge funds weather March in fine form

RBC's Hedge 250 Index had a preliminary net return of 1.71% in March, bringing the year-to-date return of the index to 5.07%.

March's numbers for the index were an improvement over February when the index inched up a mere 0.44%. Since its inception on July 1, 2005 to February, the index has had a net return of 9.44%. Over the same period other investable indices have averaged 6.04%.

The performance of RBC's index is in line with figures released by Credit Suisse, which reports a 1.82% gain for its hedge fund index in March versus a 0.34% gain in February.